Maygar shook his head. “I don’t know what you thought you filmed, but nothing was recorded. Just static.”
Mel nodded. “You’re right. There is precisely 12 minutes and 32 seconds of static. Your analysts have not progressed far enough into the recording to find the evidence I am telling you is there.”
“Why would they? Static is static.”
“It took me that long to realise the camera was no longer filming – but that all I needed to make the camera work was the will to make it so.”
“You’re telling me you altered the technical specifications of a digital camera by sheer willpower?”
“You will, of course, want to see the video evidence for yourself. But when you have done so you must inform all three governments immediately.”
It was some eight hours later and several minutes after 10pm when Luckman was escorted from his windowless cage in the bowels of ASIO headquarters to a conference room in the ministerial wing of Parliament House.
The room was full. Some of the faces he recognised, such as Australian Prime Minister Mike Taylor and his Defence Minister Bill Hutchison. The Australian delegation was seated at the back of the room, leaving the front seats neatly divided left and right for the diplomatic representatives of China and the United States of America.
Cameras at the back of the room gave the impression the meeting was being recorded for public consumption, but the media (what remains of it) had not been invited. The cameras would record the eyes-only events for posterity and security purposes. Luckman hoped one day the proceedings might become public knowledge, but it would not be today.
The cameras would beam the meeting via US military satellite to the offices of both the presidents of China and the US. Mel had insisted the leaders of both nations witness first-hand what she knew would quickly become lost in translation among those who did not see for themselves.
For their part, the Americans had shown no apparent reluctance to extend the courtesy of a satellite link to the Chinese. The US Embassy said the President was keen to show the Chinese they had nothing to hide.
Books would be written about this meeting. Belief systems would crumble under the weight of what was about to take place. In short, the world as they knew it would cease to be. Every man and woman in this room would, in years to come, remember where they were seated and who sat next to them when the event occurred.
Luckman stepped up to the podium. He spotted Mel seated at the rear beside Peter McKittrick, who was directly in front of Prime Minister Taylor. The positioning was deliberate. It told the room that Mel had the backing of the Australian Government, for whatever this was worth.
In a moment, he would call her to the podium. His job was to set the scene, to build their case. She had assured him there would be no more tricks, no more hidden agendas. He trusted her implicitly on that point.
Behind him, the frozen image on a large digital screen looked like it might have been conceived in the animation workshops of Pixar or James Cameron. It was a world of impossible colours. The sky was purple, trees bedecked in leaves of bright blue. Pat Williams was turned away from the camera, gazing out from a hilltop escarpment toward a shining city in the distance. At the foot of the hill a lake glimmered in varying shades of deep aqua, its depths quite visible because of its impossibly pristine water. It was a world that appeared untouched by human hand yet it was one that was entirely manufactured.
Luckman looked up and nodded toward the projectionist and the picture began to move. Onscreen, Luckman and Eddie Bell joined Pat Williams at the edge of the escarpment. All three men were grinning and joking with each other like kids on holiday.
At the podium, Luckman cleared his throat and introduced himself to those assembled. “What you are seeing, ladies and gentleman, is the world known as Altern. It is a world that exists on a dimensional plane different to our own and has done so for more than half a century. Its inhabitants are human beings like you and me but they have been living a life entirely separate to us. It would seem that they have decided to return to our world and have taken some very drastic steps to bring that plan to fruition.
“It is they – and not any of the nations represented in this room tonight – who caused the catastrophic collapse of the Antarctic ice shelf.”
Murmured voices rose at once in all corners of the room. Luckman let them speak for some time before raising his hands to the room.
“If I can just have your attention again – please. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. What you’re watching on the screen behind me is a digital video of Altern shot by my friend and colleague Mel Palace. A consequence of the transition from our world to Altern was that neither I nor two other members of our party were able to recall any part of what you are witnessing upon our return to Earth. However, Ms Palace has retained a perfect recollection of the events. I will now hand over the podium to her.”
Mel was already striding towards him in a manner more befitting a head of state than a trauma victim. She kissed him on the cheek and patted him warmly on the shoulder before assuming the podium like a seasoned political player.
As she did, her video continued to roll and revealed human figures in the sky descending slowly toward the men on the hilltop like a flock of Peter Pans.
“Good evening. Firstly, may I say the message I have for you is one of peace. The people you see now, the ones we call the Others, exist in a world that has no physical and no material limitations. It is a world where thoughts materialise before your very eyes.”
The flying figures landed on the hillside and quickly outnumbered the three men. The two groups warmly embraced one another like long lost friends.
“It is a place,” Mel continued, “where human imperfection has been eliminated in all but one critical area. The Others have no ambitions left to chase, no goal they have yet to achieve. Their lives have become too easy. For this, among other reasons, they seek to return to Earth. Their act in carrying out the Flood is an example of the terrible force they have at their disposal. Yet they desire us to know they will return to us in peace. They preserved the people of Alice Springs from the effects of the Sunburst as a sign of their goodwill. I entreat you, therefore, to remove the causes of dissention among you and to establish peace ahead of that return.”
At the very moment Mel stopped speaking, a woman stepped forward on the video screen as if she had been waiting for the perfect moment to join the conversation.
“Greetings Stone Luckman,” he heard the woman say. It was the second time he had heard her greeting, but it still caught him off-guard.
Across the room a collective gasp rang out as each person in turn heard not Luckman’s name but their own, in a message likewise delivered in their native tongues. The Chinese delegates heard Mandarin even as the Australians and Americans were greeted in English. A smattering of those born in other lands heard Spanish, French or German. Each of them quickly realised what was happening from the expressions on the faces of those closest.
It was an accomplishment even more miraculous in that it had been pre-recorded. Somehow they knew this was no mere feat of conjuring. A force more monumental in scope was being revealed to them.
“This is not the End of Days,” the woman told them, “this is the Beginning.”
The room maintained a shocked silence for some time after the conclusion of the message. Then at once, as if the trance had broken, a cacophony of excited discussion erupted. Several Chinese delegates crossed the floor to speak enthusiastically with their American counterparts. Hands waved in the air and voices were elevated in collective astonishment. He sensed fear, anger, even horror in those voices. Yet the one emotion overpowering all others was that of sheer relief.